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Alexander concerned House
budget proposal will top governor’s
Staggering cost of 50 bills adopted by
appropriations committee doesn’t bode well for taxpayers
An avalanche of spending
bills passed by the House Appropriations Committee has the House
Republican budget leader,
Rep. Gary
Alexander, worried that House
Democrats will once again propose a state operating budget that spends
more than the governor’s corresponding proposal. At its Feb. 4 meeting
the committee passed 50 bills that would take $98 million out of the
state’s general fund in the 2005-07 biennium and cost taxpayers a
whopping $541 million by the end of the 2007-09 biennium.
“I was mentally adding up the estimated fiscal impacts of each bill as
it passed and thinking, here they go again. How can they want all this
new spending and hope to come up with a supplemental budget anywhere
near what the governor has proposed – which is too much already?” said
Alexander, R-Thurston County, who serves on the appropriations
committee.
“In 2005 the governor’s proposed budget turned out to be the low-water
mark compared to the House and Senate Democrat plans – and all of them
were exceeded by the ‘compromise’ budget that became law,” Alexander
noted. “Now the governor wants a
supplemental budget that equates to a spending increase of more than 16
percent over the previous biennium, which is simply unsustainable. After
seeing the appropriations committee pass all those spending bills I’m
concerned the House proposal will top the governor’s again, and we’ll be
in for a repeat of last year.”
Alexander said House Democrats haven’t told him when to expect their
budget proposal. He also doesn’t plan to propose a Republican-written
budget but said House Republicans have plenty of ideas to share if House
Democrats want their supplemental budget to spend less than the
governor’s.
“Compare the 2003-05 state budget that Senator Dino Rossi helped write
with the 2005-07 budget, which Republicans didn’t help negotiate,” said
Alexander, “and it’s easy to see why the Republican ‘Commitment to
Washington’ calls for strong constitutionally protected limits on tax
increases and spending and a return to the ‘priorities of government’
budgeting approach.”
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For more information, contact:
Brendon Wold, Public
Information Officer: (360) 786-7698
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